I construct crossword puzzles for fun in my free time. For the past few years, I've only made standard themed crossword puzzles. I recently got sucked into the world of meta puzzles. It's madness and fascination, challenge and inspiration all rolled up into a puzzle within a puzzle - i love it. I try to release a meta puzzle once a week.
I am posting my latest puzzle here on the Muggles forum in the hopes that my puzzles can reach a wider audience.
Hint #1: The three grid spanners have a part of their clue in brackets
Hint #2: The bracketed clues relate in some way to their respective entries... "numbers" from the title gets us thinking about numbers... can you match each answer to a number?
Hint #3: For example, the entry "par for the course" has the clue "PGA Masters"... when you google "PGA Masters par, you'll find that the par for the entire course is 72
Hint #4: Similarly do the same for "playing the field"... you can google how many players are on an American football or soccer team (use the number for one team on the playing field, not both teams combined), and for "why am I so unlucky?," googling "fear of Triscuits Friends" yields a very specific word
Hint #5: "So they say"... instead of first letter entry extraction, or first letter clue extraction, just say the entries aloud from the 3 relevant numbers you found... you may need to google for the correct spelling of the crossword constructor's name in case you are not familiar with this puzzle's dedicatee
Solution below - SPOILER ALERT:
Answer explanation: Answer explanation: there are 11 players on an NFL or soccer team for PLAYINGTHEFIELD... triskaidekaphobia alluded to in the Triscuits clue is fear of the number 13 which is considered an unlucky number for WHYAMISOUNLUCKY... and PARFORTHECOURSE is 72 for the Masters golf tournament... Sound out the answers for 11D, 13A, 72A in order and we get the meta answer of MAT GAFFE KNEE = Matt Gaffney, the father of meta puzzles and a crossword constructor I admire and draw inspiration from. You can check out Matt's weekly crossword contest here: https://xwordcontest.com/
Why the oversized grid? That's so I can fit in a 72... The numbers I chose correspond to a date (so the title and the three grid-spanners are somewhat 'dating' related)... I thought it would be cute to string together 11/13/72 to wish Matt Gaffney a happy birthday!
Re: PCC#15 "It's a numbers game, so they say"
Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2023 5:11 pm
by Meg
Well, that was fun. Thanks, Phil!
Re: PCC#15 "It's a numbers game, so they say"
Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2023 5:13 pm
by benchen71
Well done, Phil! I'll have to check out your back-catalogue when I get a chance.
Re: PCC#15 "It's a numbers game, so they say"
Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2023 6:47 pm
by hcbirker
That was fun! Thanks Phil! Welcome to our crazy group!
Re: PCC#15 "It's a numbers game, so they say"
Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2023 10:02 am
by Cap'n Rick
Welcome to the Muggles Forum, Phil! I've been enjoying your puzzles on Crosshare for a while now. Looking forward to more metas from you in the future.
Re: PCC#15 "It's a numbers game, so they say"
Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2023 12:16 pm
by Al Sisti
I echo what @benchen71 said above.... and agree with the suggestion that you have a regular recurring thread on this forum.
Re: PCC#15 "It's a numbers game, so they say"
Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2023 3:29 pm
by whimsy
Thanks, Phil -- fun!
Glad that you and your puzzles have made it over here to the forum too now.
